Do people of differing ethnicities, cultures, and races view medicine and bioethics differently? And, if they do, should they? Are doctors and researchers taking environmental perspectives into account when dealing with patients? If so, is it done effectively and properly?

In African American Bioethics, Lawrence J. Prograis Jr. and Edmund D. Pellegrino bring together medical practitioners, researchers, and theorists to assess one fundamental question: Is there a distinctive African American bioethics?

The book's contributors resoundingly answer yes—yet their responses vary. They discuss the continuing African American experience with bioethics in the context of religion and tradition, work, health, and U.S. society at large—finding enough commonality to craft a deep and compelling case for locating a black bioethical framework within the broader practice, yet recognizing profound nuances within that framework.

As a more recent addition to the study of bioethics, cultural considerations have been playing catch-up for nearly two decades. African American Bioethics does much to advance the field by exploring how medicine and ethics accommodate differing cultural and racial norms, suggesting profound implications for growing minority groups in the United States.

Lawrence J. Prograis Jr., MD, is senior scientist, Special Programs and Bioethics, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health.

Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD, is the John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics Emeritus at Georgetown University. He is the coeditor of Jewish and Catholic Bioethics.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction

Culture and Bioethics: Where Ethics and Mores MeetEdmund D. Pellegrino

Chapter 1. Revisiting African American Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics: Distinctiveness and Other QuestionsJorge L. A. Garcia

Chapter 2. The Moral Weight of Culture in EthicsSegun Gbadegesin

Chapter 3. Whitewashing Black Health: Lies, Deceptions, Assumptions and Assertions—And the Disparities ContinueAnnette Dula

Chapter 4. Race, Equity, Health Policy, and the African American CommunityPatricia A. King

Chapter 5. Religion and Ethical Decision Making in the African American Community: Bioterrorism and the Black Postal WorkersCheryl J. Sanders

Chapter 6. Personal Narrative and an African American Perspective on Medical EthicsEzra E. H. Griffith

Chapter 7. Does an African American Perspective Alter Clinical Ethical Decision Making at the Bedside?Reginald L. Peniston

Chapter 8. Race, Genetics, and EthicsKevin FitzGerald and Charmaine Royal

Afterword: An African American's Internal Perspective on Biomedical EthicsLawrence J. Prograis, Jr.

Contributors Index